BOARD DEBATES AG RESERVE PLAN

If county commissioners want to preserve farming in the Agricultural Reserve, it's clear they're going to have to overcome the doubts of some of their own political appointees.

Members of the Land Use Advisory Board on Monday debated fiercely the merits of a program to purchase the development rights to about 13,000 acres of privately owned farmland in the reserve area west of Delray Beach and Boynton Beach.

"Why should the taxpayers of Palm Beach County have to pay up to $135 million?" asked board member Mike Grella. "Shouldn't [agriculture) be able to stand on its own?" The Land Use Advisory Board is charged with advising the commissioners on planning issues involving the county's comprehensive growth plan.

On Monday, board members considered several amendments that would clear the way for a farm-preservation program: lifting the 1989 moratorium on development in the ag reserve; setting up a legal framework for the Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement [PACE) program; and planning a process to allow development should the PACE program fail.

Usually, the Land Use Advisory Board reviews amendments before they go to the commission. This time, the commissioners already have ratified a broad farm-program, which also includes farm-friendly revisions to the zoning code and economic-development funds for agriculture. They want their advisory board to work out the details.

Board member Douglas Ombres said the farm and horse industries are competing with the development industry for the ag reserve. He doubted the PACE program could change the outcome.

"Suddenly we've got competing industries that want to use the same parcel of land," Ombres said. "If we would fund this, we would be subsidizing [agriculture), no doubt."

But Lisa Mulhall of American Farmland Trust, the consultant that wrote the farm-preservation plan, said agriculture ought to be preserved. Ag reserve farming generates at least $168 million in income for the county, she said.

"Agriculture is a base industry. It's sending products outside the county and bringing money in," she said. "When you have construction, you have a flurry of activity, then it comes to an end."